*In respect to Randall’s request for privacy, we have blurred the above photo to obscure his location.

Randall Wulff is alive. Living and breathing and content, simply playing his music in the comfort of his own home, with a girlfriend and some kittens by his side.

For two and a half years, we searched and searched, and all signs led to Lewis as being a man no longer with us. Then last week, out of the blue, an old friend from Randall’s past got in touch, mentioning that he saw Randy in Canada last year. Hours later, Jack Fleischer and I booked two plane tickets and headed to Canada on the hunt.

Feeling deflated after 48 hours of tirelessly searching, we suddenly spotted him in plain sight. We found him looking calm, cool and collected, sitting outside a little neighborhood coffee shop drinking a large hot coffee. He looked great just sitting there basking in the summer sun with his classic blond hair, white shorts, white, billowy dress shirt (confidently unbuttoned to the navel), shiny white tennis shoes, and a wooden cane, which he cited was from a recent accident, but he seemed to walk fine. He had that undeniable charm of some golden-era Hollywood actor.

Randy had no idea about the recent interest in his old records and didn’t seem to care in the slightest. We had a check for him but he wasn’t interested. We brought him CDs and LPs of L’Amour. He took a look, impressed (“nice”), and smiled, recalling a number of positive stories from back in the day. Then handed back the CD, saying it was for us and kindly declined keeping it. Randy simply wanted to look forward with both his life and music and had no interest in any celebrity or financial gain having to do with the albums. He told us over and over again, “That was a long time ago” and that we should “have a ball” with the reissues. When we mentioned that we’d been looking for him for years, he was surprised, responding that he’s been right there all along and shops for groceries at his neighborhood store.

After a half hour chatting about his musical past, he signed a couple copies of L’Amour (as “Lewis”) and said, “I wish you guys all the best. I’m not looking back. I’m doing stuff now that’s taken me forty, fifty years to write. I’m not looking into coin. I’m not looking into anything. I’m just strumming my guitar. I just wish you guys all the best in the world.”

In respect to Randall, we’ve decided that once our CD/LP stock runs out, we won’t be repressing L’Amour or Romantic Times–until he tells us differently. It doesn’t feel right collecting money from his art and him not sharing in it regardless of how incredibly positive he was about the entire thing. The royalties will continue to be set aside into an escrow in case he ever wants them.

In 2014, with the instant gratification of information at our fingertips and every mystery solved within seconds, this is a rare and beautiful thing. The man seems to be at peace, so respecting his privacy is most important. And in closing, we are aware of the small percentage of people that believe this whole thing to be a hoax. Looking at the twelve-year history of our label, anyone would see that we would never do such a thing to betray people’s trust. We, like many of you, find so many parts of this story to be beyond belief, but after this meeting with Randall, we can say that sometimes truth truly is stranger than fiction.

Great stuff everyone. L’Amour hasn’t left my player since that shiny clear wax arrived at my door.

d

So great. In light of this, how about a package deal on both albums (one per customer, perhaps)?

Eric

Any plans to release the Randy Duke stuff?

http://hipinion.com/badhat/diary badhat

wild ride. glad he’s not bent over the re-issues. solid dude.

scott

what a classy guy. and kudos to you guys for searching for him and taking him a check. wild story!!!

http://forums.hipinion.com Archie

WHAT COLOR ARE HIS EYES? I must know.

Andrew

b e s t
d u d e

Rob Guernsey

This is maybe the best thing ever. Seriously. If a single element of this whole saga could have been more perfect, I have no idea how.

http://themultiformous.blogspot.ca/ multiformous

I’ve pre-ordered the clear vinyl “L’Amour” repress and the pink wax “Romantic Times” — I’m guessing those will still ship in a couple of months?

http://timeintheshade.com roland

beautiful

http://thesmoother smooth

Awesome! Its been fun reading about the whole search and discovery..
im almost sad it is over.. but glad it has a such a cool end!
maybe you can use that money to pay back the guys it sounded like he never paid for photos and stuff

http://peterwullen.blogspot.com Peter Wullen

Great! One thing though… The picture wasn’t taken in Canada but in Hawaii. You got us tricked. It’s been confirmed that Randall lives in Hawaii. This is Hawaiian sunshine. And what now? Will we live happily ever after now? When he gets over his initial surprise he will possibly come back and there will be more Lewis albums. At the time of the interview he didn’t even know he was a hype. Maybe he will start to realize it now.

len

Did you ask him if he recorded anything else?

Robin

This is shaping up to be an amazingly impressive lie but still nothing more in my opinion. Well done for finding some old pictures from an 80s photo shoot that would be perfect for a fake 80s album cover and then tracking down the model in the picture in his later life. But why didn’t you take a quick video of him playing a tune on his guitar. After all that searching for two years and all you get is a photo and a very unconvincing interview and no video footage?? The end quote doesn’t sound like a natural sentence in the slightest. This guy has probably never played a musical instrument in his puff. You can’t really post a picture of the model in the cover when he’s older and expect that to make this whole crazy story believable. The problem is that the music just isn’t from the 80s.

Well done though! This hoax is extremely well thought out and the albums are still totally amazing in that they’re hilariously bad. I love Lewis!

Randy

This all still smells fishy. A little more than a photo and a few quotes would be appreciated. No video?

JN

LITA is awesome. They wouldn’t hoax people.

Irwin Rose

In the early 90s I worked in a cafe in Vancouver Canada where he would frequent.
He would pull up outside in a white Porsche and wander in wearing a dapper suit like on his album cover.
Had a few chats with him and he mentioned he made music and how a woman took all his money from him at some point.
Great to see he’s not looking back creatively speaking.

ab

Will the paid pr-orders of Romantic Times and Back orders of L’Amour be honored?

athwart

this is a hoax, wake up sheeple!

Johnny Bells

There is one simple reason this is nota hoax, and you don’t have to trust this label to realize it. Lewis’ album L’Amour was on the internet posted on forums for download, with the album cover art, back in 2009. Many of us have been listening to the album for years now. It makes no sense that someone would create the hoax in 2009 and then wait 5 years to release it on a record label to only then start making money. It is stupid to think anyone would do that because it makes no sense financially. Therefore this is not a hoax.

http://joshsand.com Josh

This will all make a great movie one day. “Finding Lewis”

Ian

Yes, but why’d he do it? That’s what we all want to know!

Jason Chronis

Robin, Randy, and Athwart… This is NOT a hoax. Ive owned an original copy of this record for years now. I tried tracking Lewis 5 years ago and spoke to the engineer who recorded this record… And with Ed Colver, who took the front cover shot for “L’Amour.”
I am good friend with Jack Fleischer and have been getting the updates on their own attempts at locating him as this all played out.

As someone said earlier, the L’Amour record has been known to record collectors for years before the reissue came out.

If you have any other questions about it, let me know… Hopefully I can help illustrate more clearly that these records and stories are real!

http://peterwullen.blogspot.com peter wullen

Here’s a short fragment at second 49 of Lewis aka Randy Duke live at Fiasco Bros. Studios: http://youtu.be/utlLjnP9kVE Playing the guitar & singing. Very real!

Justin

I don’t know how it could be a hoax when the YouTube videos have been up for 3 years. Besides, how much money do you really think they made off of this ‘hoax’ anyway? It may seem like ‘everyone’ is into Lewis, when the reality is it’s a small percentage of people.

The one question I want to know is, who is his girlfriend in those old pictures? I’d like to hear her story on the whole deal!

felix

double cup!

http://styrofoamdrone.com Zac

this really is fantastic

Cory

It’s such an interesting story. The music itself is haunting and addictive.

Zach

Good interweb hoax, especially the foresighted conclusion: “we won’t be repressing L’Amour or Romantic Times–until he tells us differently.”

Patrice

Beautiful story. Beautiful man. Thanks.

Bill Looms

A humble man is rare these days.
I would like to work for Light In The Attic now that i have read this story.
And not just for the coin!

I hope that your final pressings will be of a considerable amount …the vinyl is already going for too much money online.

Yiannis Papathanasiou

just wow… I loved L’amour, and in the process of loving Romantic Times too… These eerie sounds are hard to swallow, but so amazingly great
Excellent job guys on locating the genius behind those albums.
And what a nice and solid guy! Hope he accepts royalties in the end and use them to give to the world the new stuff he’s working on!!

Eric

His music is…haunting. It’s saturated with emotion. I listened for the first time today and melted into the ephemeral melodies, replaying the album over and over. What a unique find!